Enterprise bulletin Spring 2016

Coding initiative – supporting our children

Local children have built working computers in Canary Wharf, and are now cracking the secrets of computer coding.

In a six week course, at Quay Code Club, children aged 5 to 13 have been going on a creative digital journey. This will help children who are at school and their parents to show what can be achieved in using digital technology,

Inventors Club Whitechapel started the course on Saturday 27 February 2016 using equipment donated by KANO. The course will run until early April. The last session will consist of a friendly competition which will give the children a chance to create their own project. This will bring together what they have learnt over the weeks and will be followed by an awards ceremony.

Iram Rayan Umar, aged 8, who is also currently attending the course, said, “Loved building the Kano kit, I thought it was going to be difficult but I found it easy and enjoyed it very much. I think more girls should come to inventors club. Even my mum loved it”

Mr Emdad Rahman MBE, who was present at the first session, added “With IT set to become an integral part of our part of the city it is integral that we engage our youngsters to learn, enjoy and hopefully forge future careers in this field. This is the right way to do it and congratulations to the team for taking up such a great initiative”

The Quay Code Club is an initiative which is designed to help local people in enhancing their skills, which should in turn support Tech City enterprise in Tower Hamlets.

The Code Club is currently looking for enthusiastic and friendly volunteers to support and assist our young members attending the club in future courses. For further details on volunteering for Quay Coding Club please email: code.club@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Tech at the heart of London’s future

A report by South Mountain Economics released in June 2014 indicates that growth of London’s tech/info sector from 2009 to 2013 was more than triple the previous four years. The digital progress has benefited the city as a whole, at least 382,000 people are employed in the technology and information sectors, which according to one study has been responsible for 30% of the capital’s job growth since 2009.

Collectively, the tech/info sector in London plus the East and Southeast regions, including Oxford and Cambridge, has roughly 744,000 tech/info workers, up by 76,000 since 2009. That’s slightly larger than California’s tech/info sector (692,000). What’s more, the tech/info sector in the combined London-East-Southeast region is growing faster than California, even taking into account the rapid growth of San Francisco.

London is a major hub for big data. There are an estimated 54,000 big data workers within 25 miles of London and is the world leader in financial technology (fintech). There are an estimated 44,000 fintech workers within 25 miles of London, compared to 43,000 for New York and only 11,000 for San Francisco-Silicon Valley.

The new Enterprise Bill

In September 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released an Enterprise Bill which aims to protect businesses from a variety of problems, drive further growth, create more jobs and support economic security.

2015 – a record year for new company registrations

Figures produced by Companies House on their statistical release of incorporated companies registered December 2015 indicate a high level of start-ups at a national level.

The report shows that England alone has 3,395,959 businesses registered with Companies House.

Between 1979 and 2015, incorporations have increased from 66,500 to 585,700 per 12 months. The number of incorporated companies on the Total and effective registers has increased by over 2.5 million. Over this time, the total register has increased annually for 31 of the 36 years. Over the same period, the effective register has increased annually for 30 of the last 36 years and is increasing year by year.